[paulo] way too sweet

[ARYA GILLYWEED SPORE]

outfit
Hogsmeade weekends were Arya's favorites, mostly because of the freedom and the opportunity to get sheer pleasure out of buying things. But another major factor was the fact that it accorded her the chance to look nice.

Growing up, Arya had always been referred to as an "interesting beauty" by her family. It was a source of confusion and Arya asked her mother what it meant many times over. It means people notice you when you walk into a room, she replied. But Arya was never sure if that was a good or bad thing. Interesting was just as good as weird. But Arya did figure out one thing, and that was that she looked out of place in normal clothes. Arya hated the fact that Hogwarts had uniforms, although she couldn't imagine it any other way. She knew she looked unusual because she was unusual but dressed like anyone else. It didn't fit.

It was nice to look nice. Arya always wore her hair down, but today felt like a good hair day. The bright colors in her clothing made her feel happy. She felt cute and sexy because her dress was shorter than her uniform skirt, but the cardigan was comfortable and kept her from feeling too risque. She felt pretty, which was rare in a teenage girl and therefore to be cherished. And she felt independent, walking about the town purposefully all by herself. She liked coming to Hogsmeade alone.

As always in Hogsmeade, Arya bought and ate way too much candy from Honeydukes and the intense sweetness was causing her mouth to tingle. She was in desperate need of a drink and thus made her way to the Three Broomsticks.

She sat in a remote corner and ordered a gillywater, which can only be explained as a sortof mohito. It's alcohol content was medium, but it tasted light and herbal. Not sweet at all. Arya wondered why she could get away with ordering alcohol - it was usually frowned upon. But she suspected it was because she had been in the Three Broomsticks before in the company of older classmates. And maybe her eyes makeup made her look older. Either way, she got her drink and sipped it while looking out the window, people watching.

That was another reason she liked coming to Hogsmeade alone, because some of her peers looked young and would've probably prevented her from getting her drink. Drinking at the Three Broomsticks was her secret pleasure, and she always made sure to stay functional.

[PAULO HENRIQUE ALVES]

OUTFIT

It was nice when the students got to go to Hogsmede, it meant Paulo was off the hook too. He didn't have papers to grade like other professors, and the students were much too old for chaperones. Of course, he didn't love hanging out in a mostly teenage wasteland, but there were adults around too, and so it was bearable.

At first he hung out in the quidditch shop, buying new gear, even though his pro career was over, and telling tales of his limited time on the team to crowds of boisterous players. It was all well and good for a bit, but he felt like a drink. Alcohol was one of his top vices, following under age/barely legal women... As such, he headed over to the three broomsticks, which had a bit of both.

He went to the bar and ordered himself a firewhiskey, grinning and the familiar burning sensation trailed down his throat with the liquid. Paulo noticed Ms. Spore sitting by herself, gingerly drinking, and raised an eyebrow. She was much more in command when she wasn't trying to fly, and that dress... he went over, his intentions less than pure and sat down across from her.

"I'm glad to see you are feeling better." he said.

[ARYA GILLYWEED SPORE]

Had Arya been drinking at that particular moment, she might've choked, but thankfully she wasn't. Instead she stared at her professor with a mixture of fear and surprise.

He was the last person she wanted to see. Ever since the incident, she couldn't even think of him without wanting to die of embarrassment. Every time she saw him anywhere, she blushed and tried to steer clear. She was blushing now, too. The burning in her cheeks felt particularly warm because of the alcohol in her system.

Was he going to yell at her for drinking? Was he just pretending to be friendly and approachable in order to lull her into a false sense of security?

"Yes, well ..." Arya figured she could do what she always did when she wanted to get adults to like her. Charm them.

She tried her trademark sweet smile. "Nothing a drink couldn't fix."

[PAULO HENRIQUE ALVES]

"You have that right, Saúde." He said, clinking his glass against hers. Alcohol was a wonderful thing, and they could do it together. So what if she couldn't fly, it wasn't like he was marrying her, in which case it would be a deal breaker to be afraid of flying. But Paulo wasn't the marrying kind, certainly not as long as there were cute underage girls around... He knew he was a cad and that he should be ashamed, but his looks wouldn't last forever, hopefully they wouldn't die as quickly as his quidditch career though.

Paulo took a sip of his fire whiskey, more of a gulp to be honest, and set his glass back on the table top with a nice manly thud. She was drinking something dainty, just like a woman. He ran his fingers through his hair lightly and looked out the windows. He thought of his own days in school, better times. It would have been easier to talk to her as a student, easy to flirt. Here, she was closed off and nervous, happy to keep the professor/student boundaries intact. How did he flirt with that? Why waste his time? Her own hope maybe? His hope that he could still persuade her?-- It was a challenge.

[ARYA GILLYWEED SPORE]

Arya was starting to feel silly keeping up the formalities because nothing about Paulo gave off a teachery vibe. The problem then became that if he didn't feel or act like her teacher, then how did she deal with him? She knew how to talk and even be friendly with teachers, but she suspected her normal questions about careers and academics would be lost in this situation.

But Arya did have some experience with older men. She liked older guys, at least the ones she came across. The strapping young lads who worked for her parents and always gave her flowers when her dad wasn't looking. She knew how to keep them coming with a blush and a shy glance, even if she didn't say much. Or the fishermen she came across in pubs anytime she visited her aunt in Ireland. She could laugh at their jokes and always look interested in what they had to say, and they would always buy her drinks. Older men liked her. She was soft spoken, approachable, and had an easy smile. They placed protective arms over her shoulders and always insisted on walking her home or giving her their jackets.

Was Paulo in that category? He was a professor after all. But he was also very chill, since he had no problem with her drinking. Arya suspected he didn't really care what she did one way or another.

All her assumptions about him were wrong and now she was really curious as to what he was like. Arya could normally figure people out, but he was a challenge.

"What does that mean?" she asked curiously, trying to look pleasantly interested. "Saúde." she said very slowly, trying to mimic his pronunciation.

[PAULO HENRIQUE ALVES]

Paulo chuckled a little. "Uh, Cheers, but in Portuguese" He said, his accent think on his own language. "I grew up on the coast of the Mediterranean in Portugal." He explained. He figured most people sort of knew his background, he knew his life was the gossip central of the school. Young, hot, mysterious, ex-pro sports career.... he would have been offended if he hadn't gotten the attention.

Ah Portugal, the sun light, the sea air, the short shorts, his pureblood family, wealthy, living in the lap of luxury, doing as he pleased every summer as he went to Hogwarts. Then off to join Portugal's quidditch team, and then his sudden dismissal. Now he was back at school, teaching, low class but it was all he could do. Fly. He wasn't book smart, he just knew how to handle a broom and handle the ladies. It didn't leave him a lot of options, and he wasn't so rich he could do nothing. He was a slytherin after all, he had plans for himself, dreams, goals, ambitions.... He couldn't be listless.

"Where are you from?" She didn't look typical, she had roots in somewhere faintly exotic, he could tell.

[ARYA GILLYWEED SPORE]

Arya nodded as if she didn't already know that he was from Portugal. Although, the growing up along the coast part was new information. Arya logged that bit of info for whenever she saw Brett again, because now she had something to contribute. "That sounds beautiful. I saw the Mediterranean last summer." Her father let her tag along on an trip to collect samples from the marine ecosystem, but Arya spent her time tanning and flirting with foreign boys. "In Spain, though, not Portugal." she added for clarification, although she new desperately wished it was Portugal and not Spain.

"I'm from here, really. Born in London." Arya responded. While she looked interesting, she was really white through and through. Whatever "foreign" relations she had were either American or French Canadian.

"Do you miss home?" Arya asked, trying to make conversation because she really wanted him to like her now. If Portugal was anything like Spain, and she suspected it was, then it was bright, colorful, and sunny. As opposed to this grey and foggy island. Arya loved it, but this was her home, and she missed the green rolling hills and little stone village houses when she was away.

[PAULO HENRIQUE ALVES]

Spain was a nice place too, of course he was partial to his homeland. So he just nodded and smiled as he took another sip. So she was from here? He supposed that could be true. She looked like in another life she'd been some sort of exotic princess, maybe she just had one of those faces.

Did he miss home? Paulo laughed. What kind of question was that? "Of course I do!" He said. "The sun, the white sand, the bronzed skin, topless beaches..." He wiggled his eyebrows flirtatiously, totally losing track that he was out in public with her. Whatever. She was old enough to take care of herself if she was out here drinking alone.

"Not to mention Portugal has some great clubs, though, the storms can be tough to play Quidditch in." The occasional water based disaster would skirt the town as it went out into the ocean from the sea.

[ARYA GILLYWEED SPORE]

Arya wasn't stupid. She knew that he was probably flirting with her, at least a little bit. The idea was just so previously inconceivable that she had a hard time believing it. Arya took a moment to tend to her drink while she processed this development. Maybe it was the alcohol or maybe it was just the sunny day and the good-looking guy across from her, but suddenly the world seemed filled with all sorts of exciting possibilities.

Or maybe he was just a natural flirt. A charmer. Was it really so scandalous for a grown man to admit that he appreciated nude beaches?

But she really wanted him to like her. Particularly because his eyes made her want to melt, his accent gave her goosebumps, and they way he smiled made her blood feel warm coursing through her body.

"It sounds like fun." Arya agreed with another smile. She was being far too liberal with her smiles. "Not the storms, though, those sound rough."

"But I bet you handle yourself just fine."

[PAULO HENRIQUE ALVES]

He chuckled. "Yeah, I can handle myself." Paulo was laying on the charm, but in reality, he could manage a storm. He could fly out of a hurricane if he had too, he was sure of it. When he was on a broom, he owned the world, and nothing was going to bring him down, not even gravity. "They usual just miss us." he said, Portugal hadn't had a huge natural disaster in a long time... well, there was a mudslide a few years back.

"It is fun though, you should add it to your list of vacation places." He nodded taking another manly swig of his fire whiskey. Only losers sipped their whiskey in his opinion. He wasn't some 12 year old sneaking the stuff, so he shouldn't drink like he was.

"I guess you never get any real tropical storms up here, you just get the rain." It was so dismal in england, and english was such a hard and boring language. He hadn't liked it as a student and he didn't like it now, not that he was old enough to really enjoy what was waiting at home on those beaches.

[ARYA GILLYWEED SPORE]

It was really sexy, Arya thought trying not to stare too adoringly, the way he chuckled. And the way he drank. He was a really manly man. A good looking manly man. Arya's thoughts were becoming increasingly simplistic the more sips she took. She was still sipping, but she could get away with it because she was a lady with a lady's drink. But she was sipping at a more frequent rate because she was trying to distract herself from his perfection.

"I'll take it into consideration." she said coyly, referring to his suggestion regarding visiting Portugal. This flirting game was rather fun.

And then it was her turn to chuckle. "Sir, you're in the UK. Nothing up here can be considered tropical." Of course even now Arya couldn't resist being a smartass. "We just get storms." Laughing was too easy now between the company and the drink, but she tried to reign it in because she didn't want it to seem as though she was laughing at him. So she took another sip of her drink.

And noticed that she was finished with her gillywater. She silently debated, looking at her glass. She'd never gotten more than one drink when she was out alone.

[PAULO HENRIQUE ALVES]

Paulo smiled at her. "No, I suppose not." He conceded. The were far too north to be tropical, but what did it matter really? "Only your storms are full of rain and snow." He said with a shake of his head. Snow was a drag, and really a bummer as an adult. As a child, it was loads of fun to play in the snow and spell snowballs to whiz around the castle like heat seeking missiles...

He noticed her drink was empty and flagged over the bartender automatically. "Get her what she wants, add it to my tab." he said, shamelessly paying for her. he did leave it up to her if she wanted something simple like hot chocolate or another of whatever she had just finished. He wouldn't presume to know, considering she was a student-- and ladies loved and noticed things like that. They loved to be taken care of while simultaneously being respected. He'd gotten very good at those kinds of moves. He was 24 after all and had plenty of prime time life to practice, past and future.

[ARYA GILLYWEED SPORE]

"And sleet and hail." Arya added along to his description, but he basically had the right idea. "But it's cozy." Arya said, thinking longingly. "When you're indoors by a fireplace when it's completely miserable out."

Imbued with liquid confidence, Arya continued speaking, defending her homeland. "So you foreigners can keep your sun and energy. You're late night club parties and the like. We've got the true classic romantic atmosphere here." She grinned when she called him a foreigner, feeling bold referring to her professor that way.

The fact that he paid for her drink was slightly sobering. While people had paid for her drinks before, they were never her professor. She couldn't help thinking that this had to be against some sort of rule. But he was the adult here, supposedly with wiser judgement. If he wasn't reining in, then he thought it was ok, right?

She dismissed the thought and said "Thanks." as gratefully but nonchalantly as she could, trying to be polite but not show how completely smitten she was.

[PAULO HENRIQUE ALVES]

Paulo shook his head. He hated the cold, and cozy inside bit. It was always still cold. He liked the heat, the beach, the grit of sand and sweat... when he went to the room of requirement, it was always a beach themes event, and the ladies he was with loved the change of temperature and pace. it was hard to keep your hands off when everything was warm and melting into the very air. The cold just made him more moody than usual.

"The cold is perhaps romantic, but not passionate." he said. Paulo knew this was not the place to discuss the merits of beach sex, nor the person with which to discuss them. She hardly seemed the type to try it out with him either. Ms. Spore seemed like a hard working student, not one who would slut it up for a grade, much less for fun. Though Paulo hadn't decided if he really wanted to seduce her yet, it was quite a bit of work for someone who couldn't handle a broomstick...

[ARYA GILLYWEED SPORE]

Arya was the inquisitive type of person who was now actually debating and considering the pros and cons to romance and passion. "It could be." Arya said thoughtfully, almost to no one in particular, just thinking aloud. She wasn't even looking at him at this point, but at a fixed point somewhere outside the window. She was thinking it was easy to feel passionate in a place filled with warmth and energy, but the best kind of passion was the kind that blazed regardless of the cold.

Arya tried not to get lost in her head, as she was prone to do. It was rude in front of people. And given the subject matter, it was more than likely she could start fantasizing. "Sorry." she apologized. Her drink came to her just then, and she lifted it to her lips. After the first sips she put it down and added, "Thanks again. You didn't have to."